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What it takes to become a top 1% PM | Ian McAllister (Uber, Amazon, Airbnb)

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Nov 20, 2022

Guest

Ian McAllister

Ian McAllister, Senior Director of Product at Uber, has a wealth of experience from Amazon and Airbnb. He shares insights on the essential qualities that top product managers possess, such as effective communication and prioritization. McAllister discusses the 'working backwards' framework, emphasizing the need to identify customer problems first. He highlights the significance of writing for professional growth and the role of mentorship in product management. Listeners will discover how to navigate their careers and build trust within their teams.

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ADVICE

Essential Skills for New PMs

Focus on communication, prioritization, and execution as a new PM.
Other skills like technical trade-offs and design are less crucial initially.

insights

INSIGHT

Key Attributes of Senior PMs

As a senior PM, focus on thinking big, building trust, and driving impact.
Earn trust by consistently meeting expectations and aligning with stakeholders' goals.

question_answer

ANECDOTE

Building Trust at Airbnb

At Airbnb, Ian McAllister focused on building the customer support platform like Amazon.
He learned the importance of partnering with customer support leadership for better execution.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

The Power of Writing in Product Management

04:28 • 7min

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Essential Skills for Product Managers

11:34 • 20min

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Building Trust and a Broader Business Perspective for Product Management Success

31:43 • 3min

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Building Trust in Product Leadership

34:30 • 12min

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Working Backwards: A Customer-Focused Approach

46:33 • 12min

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Diverse Insights and Personal Picks

58:58 • 6min

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The Wool Trilogy

Hugh Howey

The series, which includes 'Wool', 'Shift', and 'Dust', takes place in a world where humanity lives in a 144-floor underground silo after an unknown catastrophic event. The story follows characters like Holston and Juliette as they uncover the secrets and lies within the silo and confront the harsh realities of their world. The series delves into themes of survival, control, and the human desire for truth and freedom.

Getting Real

The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application

37signals

Getting Real outlines the philosophy and practices of 37signals, emphasizing simplicity, speed, and efficiency in software development. The book is packed with insights on keeping things simple, avoiding unnecessary complexity, and focusing on core problems. It covers topics such as self-funding, flexible scope, lean operations, and the importance of real, running software. The book is not a technical manual but a collection of big-picture ideas applicable to various aspects of web application development and beyond.

Energy and Civilization

Vaclav Smil

Ian McAllister is the Senior Director of Product for Vehicles at Uber. Before moving to Uber, Ian spent over a decade directing teams at Amazon, where he created and led Amazon Smile. He was also Director of Product Management at Airbnb, where I was lucky enough to have worked alongside him. In today’s episode, we discuss Ian’s famous document about the essential attributes of the top 1% of product managers. Ian outlines the most important skills to focus on for entry-level PMs and how to broaden your experience and diversify skills as you move up the ladder. He also shares what he learned working with Jeff Wilke, Jeff Bezos, and other leaders at Amazon, and goes in depth on Amazon’s working-backwards framework.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/what-it-takes-to-become-a-top-1-pm-ian-mcallister-uber-amazon-airbnb/#transcript

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Where to find Ian McAllister:

• Newsletter: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ianmcall

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianmcallister/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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Thank you to our wonderful sponsors for making this episode possible:

• Mixpanel: https://mixpanel.com/startups

• Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lenny

• AssemblyAI: https://www.assemblyai.com/?utm_source=lennyspodcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=nov20

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Referenced:

• What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Substack: https://ianmcallister.substack.com/p/what-distinguishes-the-top-1-of-product

• What distinguishes the top 1% of product managers from the top 10%, on Quora: https://www.quora.com/What-distinguishes-the-Top-1-of-product-managers-from-the-Top-10

• Amazon’s working-backwards method: https://www.productplan.com/glossary/working-backward-amazon-method/

• Jeff Wilke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffawilke

• Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Real-Smarter-Successful-Application/dp/0578012812

• Wool (Wool trilogy #1): https://www.amazon.com/Wool-Trilogy-Howey-25-Apr-2013-Paperback/dp/B011T7ACU0/

• Energy and Civilization: A History: https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774

• How I Built This podcast: https://www.npr.org/series/490248027/how-i-built-this

• EV News Daily podcast: https://www.evnewsdaily.com/

• Yellowstone on Peacock: https://www.peacocktv.com/stream-tv/yellowstone

• Everything Everywhere All at Once on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/titles/3493875/everything-everywhere-all-at-once

• Gibson Biddle’s website: https://www.gibsonbiddle.com/

• Gibson Biddle on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/gibson-biddle-on-his-dhm-product-strategy-framework-gem-roadmap-prioritization-framework-5-netflix-strategy-mini-case-studies-building-a-personal-board-of-directors-and-much-more/

• Gibson Biddle’s Ask Gib newsletter: https://askgib.substack.com/

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In this episode, we cover:

(03:54) What Ian expected from his initial post on product management

(05:30) How the post impacted Ian’s career

(07:06) How writing can help you crystallize your thoughts

(08:26) Ian’s background

(10:57) Attributes of the top 1% of PMs

(14:32) The top three skills for new PMs to perfect

(20:32) Tips on strengthening communication and prioritization

(23:06) How to level up as a PM

(26:37) What kind of impact should new PMs expect to make?

(29:36) How to broaden your view and think big

(33:06) How to earn the trust of others

(34:30) How Ian could have done more to earn trust at Airbnb

(37:27) Why people tend to stick around Amazon for a while

(39:53) What Ian learned from Bezos and Wilke

(46:38) How teams get working backwards wrong

(53:51) The two parts of working backwards and how Ian utilizes it at Uber

(58:57) Lightning round

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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